Codeless applications are creating a new age of technology which satisfy the demands and skill sets of both novices and expert users. Prominent codeless tools such as Squarespace, Airtable, or Wix have made noticeable changes to the way non-technical users get involved in the product development cycle. As a result, the gap between the increasing demands of product delivery and the team members’ general skill sets is effectively narrowed down.

Software testing industry also had its name mentioned in this movement. As CI/CD and continuous testing practices are becoming more necessary in the Agile development process, going codeless helps the product team to deal with fast delivery and update speed. Thus, it is a must to make automation testing accessible to users at all levels. Codeless automated testing tools are expected to be capable of both simplifying test activities for QA teams as well as handling the growing complexity of software.

Selenium Script-Based versus Modern Codeless Test Automation Platforms

Selenium has always been dominant on the list of automation tools for not only enterprises but the individual testers. This is a popular and widely adopted open-source test platform due to its test suites build up flexibility and all-inclusive integration capabilities. Plus, it has a big and supportive user community.

Besides the mentioned advantages, Selenium users (or potential users) need to be aware of the steep learning curve and require advanced programming skills to best leverage test automation. The ultimate goal of test automation is to reduce the effort and save time for manual testers, cut back testing phase in the development cycle and generally accelerate the whole process. This is the time you realize that Selenium is not always the best and appropriate choice for your team. Especially when there are differences in team members’ testing knowledge and skill sets.

At the beginning of 2020, codeless test automation tools became an emerging player and is considered as an optimal solution for QA teams. In addition, it helps with the common problems and the age-old testing challenges for automation teams. For example, QA engineers can now say goodbye with having to learn extensive coding, and companies can put down the burden of recruiting/outsourcing automation experts.

How could it be possible? Simply because of the tools’ friendly GUI, ready-made documentations, tutorials and strong user communities led by experts. Furthermore, this type of testing well supports businesses with fast-paced product development, expanding test data and environment complexity, and most importantly, closing the gap between members’ knowledge and skill sets.

It’s a good time to get started and dive into test automation with the support of codeless testing tools as they provide a set of built-in features to make the test process hassle-free — from test case creation, test execution, to project maintenance.

All About Codeless Test Automation

The definition of codeless test automation
In codeless test automation, testers can easily execute the test automation with no scripts required. Generally, codeless testing tools in the market can offer ready-made features which remove complicated coding for the testers. Some key features of codeless test automation are: Record and Playback, Drag and drop Interface, AI/ML technologies, broad set of integration, etc. making test automation easier than ever.

How to leverage test automation
Testers can design test cases with a user-friendly interface while the test scripts are automatically written in the backend. It leads to more time for testers to entirely concentrate on testing for functionality assurance and exploratory testing.

Codeless tool are chosen based on its significant changes in both the mindset of the QA team and the workflow that has been used for ages. Please keep in mind that codeless testing cannot fully replace Selenium as well as all essential aspects of your test objects. It can work well on cases that require continuous and regression testing as these types of test are repetitive and take a great deal of time and effort. Especially in the context that the project keeps growing and there will be more significant and urgent things to handle.

The advantages of test automation

• Get higher test coverage

With most codeless testing tools, QA engineers can test multiple types of applications such as web, desktop, or virtual. This allows testers to apply test automation simultaneously on different platforms, which helps to save a bunch of time.

• Speed up time to market

As mentioned, QA teams will be set free from repetitive test practices with codeless tools and spend their time on the results of test activities. Moreover, most codeless tools currently provide a wide set of integration capabilities that meet businesses’ needs at scale while simultaneously keeping test generation and maintenance simple.

• Increase test reusability

Codeless tools in general, allow testers to reuse test steps. Manual integration of new changes or test cases updates can be removed from your task list as they are automatically done. Machine learning and AI technologies grant codeless tools the ability to prioritize reusability and simplify test maintenance for managing, healing, and maintaining application objects and elements in test suites.

• Strengthen Agile methodology

As the need for advanced programming skills is simply removed when adopting codeless testing tools on projects, team members with various functions and knowledge base can together participate in the test process. Codeless testing tools are also accessible to all members with different skill sets and responsibilities among the team.

Katalon Studio: A Powerful Codeless Testing Tool for Teams at Scale

Lately, Katalon Studio has been named on the list of 2020’s Test Automation Software by Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice. More than 65,000 companies trusted and voted for the tool to be one of the most fundamental automation software for the testing community due to its high adaptability with both scripting and codeless automation demands.

A complete cross-platform test automation solution which can be considered a game changer
Katalon Studio is an all-in-one test automation solution which fully covers the software development cycle. The tool is built to serve the demand of enterprise scalability, to encounter ROI challenges and technically to make continuous testing easier to execute.

Along with the productive IDE for test execution, the tool provide its users essential and seamless integrations to SDLC such as Jira, qTest; to CI/CD tools as Jenkins, CircleCI; execution platform as Selenium, SauceLabs; or to communicate applications as Slack, and Microsoft Teams, etc. Katalon TestOps which is a part of the whole Katalon Solution, together with Katalon Studio can even be more powerful. It helps to generate comprehensive, detailed reports and analytics. With Katalon TestOps, empowered by AI technology, testers can obtain more value via test automation.

Ease of use as a first priority
Katalon is primarily designed for testers with minimal coding skills, for manual testers who have made very first steps on moving to automation but would like to leverage the tool to the fullest. With its ready-made framework, a built-in recorder, and predefined test methods, Katalon Studio can help users to get started with their test projects effectively and effortlessly.

Additionally, Katalon Smart Wait feature which is available from Katalon Studio v7 is expected to be a new way to handle web loading issues in Selenium. This feature is one of the reasons for the QA team to consider adopting Katalon Studio on the project. In specific, Smart Wait removes flakiness during test execution by automatically waiting for all processes to complete loading before moving to the next steps.

Capabilities to empower test coverage
Katalon Studio meets the needs of users for testing on almost all platforms, such as Web, API, Mobile (iOS and Android), and Desktop applications. Groovy is supported for writing test cases. This makes it easier for those who work with the Java language to start working with the tool.

Enhancements made for test maintenance
Katalon Smart XPath uses AI to automatically locate the web or app elements to help testers deal with constant changes in every new release. It also helps to increase the possibility of successfully identifying an object. Therefore, it will auto-heal during runtime, and quickly adapt to UAT changes.
Another major enhancement on Katalon’s auto-healing capability is Visual Object Recognition. With this feature, users are allowed to use an image representing an object to find that object during test execution. It is built to solve the issue of object identification in an Agile environment in which new updates are released more frequently and in smaller batches.

Conclusion
In brief, it is unavoidable that codeless testing will become more crucial. This trend is expected to continue to develop in 2020. The idea of having an appropriate selection of which tool to adopt should be carefully considered, as it will impact the team’s existing workflow. The tool’s functionalities, its supported platform(s)/laguage(s) and its integration capabilities will be key aspects for the team to effectively gain values from test automation.

Katalon Studio is mentioned as one of the few tools that genuinely support codeless testing practices. The tool is not only adopted by a large number of non-technical/less experienced users but also by reputable industry’s thought leaders and test experts. Katalon Studio is playing its role as an optimal automation choice for scalable teams. You can download the latest version of this tool to experience your automated testing journey codelessly.

Katalon Studio is playing its role as an optimal automation choice for scalable teams. You can download the latest version of this tool to experience your automated testing journey codelessly.